1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data processing apparatus and an image recording apparatus capable of transmitting printing data to an image recording apparatus having a plurality of containing units or an image recording apparatus connectable to option devices having a plurality of containing units, a method of controlling the data processing apparatus, a method of controlling the image recording apparatus, and a storage medium.
2. Related Background Art
Recently in an image recording apparatus such as a printer, when a plurality of users share an image recording apparatus having a plurality of sheet discharge ports, the following methods are suggested for separation:
(1) 1-job separation mode in which sheets are discharged to a vacant discharge port for each job;
(2) Pseudo mailbox mode in which fixed names are previously appended to the sheet discharge ports and they are changed to each other by designating their names; and
(3) Sheet discharge method in which a vacant sheet discharge port is dynamically allocated to each user on the basis of user information included in printing data as described in the Japanese Patent Application No. 2-120068.
The above separation methods (1), (2) and (3) will be described below by using FIGS. 27, 28 and 29 which are their conceptual diagrams, respectively.
The 1-job separation mode (1) will be described, first.
Referring to FIG. 27, there is shown a conceptual diagram of assistance in explaining the above separation method, 1-job separation mode (1).
First, regarding the 1-job separation mode in (1), an example shown in FIG. 27 assumes that a printing job is transmitted to a printer in an order of user kakky, user yuichi, user jmori, user sakai, user kakky, user sakai, and user sakai.
In this example, the job switching is sensed inside the printer independently of an owner of the job and at a reception of a new job a sheet discharge port having no sheet stacking quantity is retrieved while sheet is continuously discharged for the job to the sheet discharge port determined at the start of the job.
In this manner, a mixture of jobs is prevented by switching sheet discharge ports before a sheet discharge for each job.
Next, the pseudo mailbox mode (2) is described below.
Referring to FIG. 28, there is shown a conceptual diagram of assistance in explaining the above separation method, pseudo mailbox mode (2).
Then, regarding the pseudo mailbox mode (2), an example in FIG. 28 shows a method of realizing a pseudo mailbox with operations of settings on the host computer.
For example, if seven users share a printer, the users set names of sheet discharge ports for the shared printer. At this time, the same user names need be set on all the host computers sharing the printer.
In the example in FIG. 28, an operation is performed assuming a director for bin 1, a room chief for bin 2, a supervisor for bin 3, a staff A for bin 4, a staff B for bin 5, a staff C for bin 6, and a secretary for bin 7. In printing, a required name is designated, by which the corresponding sheet discharge port is fixedly designated for a pseudo separation.
In this manner, a mixture of jobs is prevented by giving meanings to the sheet discharge ports appearing on screens of the host computers.
Next, the sheet discharge method described in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-120068 (3) will be described below.
Referring to FIG. 29, there is shown a conceptual diagram of assistance in explaining the above separation method, a sheet discharge method described in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-120068 (3).
In the sheet discharge method described in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-120068 in (3), as shown in FIG. 29, a user name is added to printing data and sheet is discharged to a sheet discharge port used by the user or to a sheet discharge port having no sheet stacking quantity which has been retrieved if there is no sheet discharge port used by the user and registered as a sheet discharge port of the user.
If sheet is discharged in this method, only jobs of a single user are discharged to a certain sheet discharge bin and a bin used by each user can be reliably separated from others. Furthermore, a plurality of jobs of an identical user can be discharged to a single bin, which prevents an event that full stacking immediately occurs that has been a problem in a 1-job separation.
In addition there is no need for making complicated settings on the host computers of all the users sharing the printer so as to prevent a mixture of jobs.
In the above conventional examples of (1) to (3), however, there are problems described below.
In the 1-job separation mode (1), as described above, even if most of data requires a small number of sheets for one job, sheet discharge ports are switched to each other for sheet discharge for each job independently of job owners, which may cause a problem that full stacking occurs before a stacking capability of the sheet discharge port is used up.
In addition, in the pseudo mailbox mode (2), a name of a sheet discharge port of an image recording apparatus is registered on a host computer and then it is converted to a fixed designation to a sheet discharge port having the name, and therefore the same names need be registered on all the host computers sharing the image recording apparatus. The adjustment of settings on all the host computers sharing the image recording apparatus requires plenty of time and labor and neglecting this operation may cause a problem that sheets are discharged to a sheet discharge port not intended by the user.
For example, in the example shown in FIG. 28, the room chief sets names incorrectly, by which the bin of the director and that of the room chief are replaced to each other in the setting and it easily causes a problem that jobs of the director are mixed with those of the room chief at bin 1 and bin 2 disadvantageously.
Furthermore, in the sheet discharge method described in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-120068 in (3), the separation is limited to separation for each user and it is hard to make separations adapted to purposes of a user.
For example, a user cannot select any of the following purposes in a sheet discharge operation:
Switching sheet discharge ports for each host computer to be used;
Switching sheet discharge ports for each application to be used;
Switching sheet discharge ports for each sheet type to be used;
Switching sheet discharge ports for each file to be printed;
Switching sheet discharge ports for each time period in which the printer is used;
In other words, printed sheets of an identical user are discharged to an identical bin and printing jobs cannot be flexibly separated according to purposes of sheet discharging for each user, which may lead to a problem of much inconvenience.
In addition, if a large amount of printing data is printed out with sharing an image recording apparatus, an operator call indicating full stacking is displayed at full stacking of a sheet discharge port registered for a user even if other bins are vacant, by which the user cannot print remaining data without removing stacked sheets on the sheet discharge port, which may lead to a problem that a large amount of data cannot be continuously printed.
Furthermore, even if the full stacking is not displayed at the time of the full stacking of a sheet discharge port which is being used by a user and sheets are discharged to a sheet discharge port corresponding to any vacant bin, sheets can be discharged to a plurality of bins, but vacant sheet discharge ports need be arbitrarily retrieved before the sheet discharge operation, which may cause a problem that recording sheets are forgot to be picked up, that a user cannot grasp where his or her own printed sheets are discharged without checking carefully all of the plurality of bins one by one, or that an order of printing jobs is confused. It is also necessary to cope with the disadvantages which may occur in an operation with a judgement of the apparatus for utilizing the stacking capability of the sheet discharge port.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide a data processing apparatus, an image recording apparatus, a method of controlling the data processing apparatus, a method of controlling the image recording apparatus, and a storage medium that solve the above problems.
According to one aspect, the present invention which achieves this object related to a data processing apparatus, an image recording apparatus, a method of controlling the data processing apparatus, a method of controlling the image recording apparatus, and a storage medium in which various types of printed sheets are separated for sheet discharging for each user not only according to a user name, but also according to various purposes of sheet discharging so as to cope with various requests from users with making the most of the stacking capability of sheet discharge ports without a need for complicated settings or the like for each data processing apparatus and in which it is possible to solve disadvantages that may be caused by an operation executed for utilizing the stacking capability of the sheet discharge ports.
Other objects and features besides those discussed above shall be apparent to those skilled in the art from the description of preferred embodiments of the invention which follow and appended drawings.